My Companions:I was late last week and doing better with my post this week; so except for keeping an update on Anna Margaret's surgery (see comments on last week's post) I have not heard too much from "My Companions." Oh I did receive a question about how to leave comments... just click on the comment box, write your comment, choose "name" and leave your name, the choose "Publish Post."
Keeping-in-touch
I have little news: Matt's home, I'm plugging away on the Emmaus project...
The Readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080308.shtml
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080308.shtml
Comments on the Readings
Fr. Foley focuses on the GOOD NEWS and how much we can trust the Lord:
My Reflections
Where Fr. Foley focuses on the good news and the graciousness of God in these readings, I can not but reflect on the miracle of Jesus in feeding the multitudes... maybe because I'm thinking of the miracle of modern medicine in the healing of Anna Margaret and the miracle of celebrating the Eucharist...
I read somewhere that medieval people believed in Jesus because of miracles and modern people believe in Jesus in spite of the miracles (our sin is pride: we think we're so smart and know all about the world and all about God, thus fail to open ourselves to Mystery).
I think we miss the deeper meaning of miracle as a "work of God" or "a sign of God's presence" (a translation of the word used in the Greek: see semeion http://eastonsbibledictionary.com/m/miracle.htm) because we focus on the Latin translation of the word mīrāculum = wonder. We think we know how God acts/works and we expect God to be inactive except for "special moments." We do not really appreciate "the miracle of life" and know that Our Lord is constantly active in every moment of our lives. We do not live in a world of wonder (Latin) because we fail to recognize the love that fills our lives because of the work of God (Greek).
Take a moment to recognize the working of God in your life today for "this is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!" And thank you for helping me celebrate all this Good News.
Maybe you could leave a comment on the miracles in your life these days...
May the peace of Christ be with each of you.
May the peace of Christ be with each of you.
John
Thursday PM update on Anna
ReplyDeleteAnna is still in Moderate Care...as I said before, she'll be in Moderate Care until she's rid of the external pacemaker. She had a pretty good day today. She sat on my lap a couple of times (even though she cried out in fear of feeling pain); she sat on Grandma's lap too. While Dave and I were away from the room, Grandma and Papa and the nurse assisted Anna to the bathroom - the purpose was to make her walk a few steps...which she did unwillingly. It's time to 'push' her in some areas...so it's tough on us to see her in pain. She did also have a few bites of a popsicle; she also had a few licks of a sucker; and she took a sip of applejuice as well. Little steps...but it's progress. We just hope her heart starts working properly so she can get off that pacemaker. I think that's our biggest concern. It might be a slow process though...
And I almost forgot...she got her chest drain tube out today! That is so nice. Now we only have 14 wires/tubes to worry about, not 13. It's progress...
Chris and Dave
Dad sent this to me in an email, I thought I would pass it on as a comment in the blog:
ReplyDeleteWet Pants
Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat. He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'
May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good deeds. Remember.....Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car. Each and everyone one of us is going through tough times right now, but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can. Keep the faith.
Friday morning update: Anna Margaret
ReplyDeleteThis is the e-mail that I have been hoping to send... She is doing so great. Her heart is finally doing what it needs to do. She still has the external pacemaker as a back-up though. She's a different person today. She took a walk all the way down the hall this morning - because they have a toy room down there. She is being such a trooper. We will be here at least until Monday...and depending on some tests they'll do that day...we might get to go home soon after that...maybe that next day... We are taking it one day at a time, but the word 'home' sounds so good. She's wearing US out now...
Chris and Dave
... and John adds, "Praise the Lord!"
Here is a reflection from the celebration of St Ignatius Day at Regis yesterday:
ReplyDeleteA Reflection from Archbishop Romero
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do in complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/romero/romero.html
This beautiful story was written by a doctor who worked in Africa.
ReplyDeleteOne night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter.
We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (We had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.
One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton
wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the
fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to
tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily
in tropical climates ).
'And it is our last hot water bottle!' she exclaimed. As in the West, it
is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be
considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on
trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.
'All right,' I said, 'put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job
is to keep the baby warm.'
The following noon , as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any
of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the
youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about
the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm
enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying
because her mother had died.
During prayer time, one ten -year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual
blunt conciseness of our African children. 'Please, God' she prayed,
'Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the
baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.'
While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, 'And
while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl
so she'll know You really love her?'
As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly
say 'Amen'? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I
know that He can do everything; the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would
be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for
almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel
from home.
Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water
bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses'
training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door.
By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the verandah
was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty
or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box.
>From the top, I lifted out brightly-colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes
sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box
of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the
weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the.....could it really
be? I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand new, rubber hot water
bottle. I cried.
I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.
Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying
out, 'If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!'
Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small,
beautifully-dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted!
Looking up at me, she asked: 'Can I go over with you and give this dolly
to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?' Of
course, I replied!
That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my
former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's
prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the
girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in
answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it 'that
afternoon.'
'Before they call, I will answer.' (Isaiah 65:24)
When you receive this, please pray the prayer below. That's all you have
to do. No strings attached. Just send it on to whomever you want - but
please do send it on.
Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, but a
lot of rewards. Let's continue praying for one another.
This awesome prayer takes less than a minute.
'Heavenly Father, I ask You to bless my friends reading this. I ask You
to minister to their spirit. Where there is pain, give them Your peace
and mercy. Where there is self-doubting, release a renewed confidence to
work through them. Where there is tiredness or exhaustion, I ask You to
give them understanding, guidance, and strength. Where there is fear,
reveal Your love and release to them Your courage. Bless their finances, give them greater vision, and raise up leaders and friends to support and
encourage them. Give each of them discernment to recognize the evil forces around them and reveal to them the power they have in You to defeat it. I ask You to do these things in Jesus' name. Amen'
P.S. Passing this on to anyone you consider a friend will bless you both. Passing this on to one not considered a friend is something Christ would do.
Saturday Update on Anna
ReplyDeleteI don't have a lot of time to write today...we're busy chasing Anna around the floor. She's doing great. She's hooked up to minimal wires right now. We are still in Moderate Care right now, but should be going to General Care once a bed opens up.
Chris and Dave